The world wide web (“Web”) provides an enormous distributed database of information interconnected by the Internet. The Internet is a world wide collection of thousands of networks that span over 100 countries and connect millions of computers. The number of users continues to grow rapidly and the Internet has quickly become a virtual means of communication, collaboration, commerce, entertainment, and the like.
The world wide connectivity and the rapidly growing number of Internet users is fostering the growth of online communities. A community is a virtual association of users who typically share a common interest. For example, communities form around topics such as politics, sports, hobbies, technology, and current events, to name a few.
Online discussion groups such as Usenet news groups, email lists, newsletters, bulletin boards, and forums, support these communities, including communication amongst the users in the communities. There are thousands of discussion groups covering a very large number of interests and generating a significant portion of the online content on the Internet. Many of the Internet users consider the content in these discussion groups to be the most important and useful content on the Internet.
The content in these discussion groups are in the form of messages posted by users. Typically, a user posts a message to a discussion group by filling out a form that includes the subject, the body of a message, and selecting a discussion group into which to post the message. A message, such as a question or a suggestion, that is not a reply to an earlier message starts a new thread. A thread is a series of messages that have been posted as replies to each other. A single discussion group typically contains many threads covering many topics. By reading the sequence of messages in a thread, a user is able to determine how the discussion has evolved.
A key problem for a user not familiar with the discussion groups is selecting a proper discussion group into which to post the message. Because of the large number of discussion groups, it is very likely that a user unfamiliar with the discussion groups will specify an incorrect or improper discussion group for the message. This results in the message being placed within an inappropriate discussion group, which contributes to the lack of organization of the content in, and usefulness of the discussion group.
Accordingly, a community services system and method that assists a user in posting a message by suggesting a discussion group that is appropriate for the message will have significant utility.